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This LA Bathroom Embodies the Spirit of Disney's Haunted Mansion

Carrie Hayward isn’t possessed, but she’s admittedly obsessed. The lifelong Disney fan got married at Epcot’s Morocco Pavilion in Walt Disney World in Florida and renewed her vows five years later at Aulani, the Disney resort on Oahu. She blogs about Disney and wrote a guidebook on Disney weddings and honeymoons. She even turned a bathroom in her 1949 apartment in Los Angeles into a replica of the Victorian-style foyer in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.

Designer: Hayward, with an assist from interior decorator Leslie Landis

The backstory: When Hayward was a child, her school had a day off each year that other Southern California schools didn’t, so her family would take advantage of it and visit Disneyland, in Anaheim. “We would get there at ‘rope drop’ and run to be the first on Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion,” Hayward says. “The latter has been my favorite ride as long as I can remember. I think it’s the perfect mix of spooky and silly for a kid, especially one who loves ghost stories.”

As she got older, Hayward kept her passion mostly under wraps. “But one day as I was waiting to board Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, I threw a nickel in the fountain and wished to meet a man who shared my love of Disneyland and was straight,” she says.“That night, I got talked into going to the birthday party of a childhood friend I hadn’t seen in a while, and I met his cousin Patrick.

“On our first date, as the lights were about to go down on our second movie of the night, Patrick casually mentioned that he had a Disneyland annual pass. I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ And then had to wait two hours to talk about it.

“Now whenever I go on Big Thunder Mountain, I wish for a Ferrari!”

Wallpaper: For these superfans, wanting to bring Disney into their home decor was only natural. While haunting the mansion’s fan sites, Hayward discovered the name of the foyer wallpaper’s manufacturer: Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers, which makes hand-printed, historically based wallpapers in Benicia, California. She was thrilled to learn that the pattern and color (Lily in Ashes of Rose) was still in production.

The silk-screened paper, with delicate lilies on a geometric background, was inspired by the work of Victorian designer and botanist Christopher Dresser. And it was the starting point for this bathroom. “This is the easiest and fastest way to make your house look like the Haunted Mansion,” Hayward says.

Artwork: Hayward decorated the walls with Disney lenticular prints and concept art. Lenticular printing uses a ridged plastic lens and spliced graphics to produce an image with the illusion of depth or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles.

For the Haunted Mansion’s 30th anniversary in 1999, Disney sold souvenirs recalling the eerie Portrait Hall paintings, whose subjects appear to transform from handsome to gruesome.

Concept art is a visual representation of an idea in the development of a movie, video game, amusement park attraction or other project. The first piece Hayward ever bought is still her favorite: Sam McKim’s 1958 concept for the Haunted Mansion’s exterior. It hangs on the wall next to the sink. “I love how wild and spooky the mansion looks in this piece,” she says.

Although the mansion is on Disneyland’s New Orleans Square, it’s believed to have been inspired by a building in Baltimore, the Shipley-Lydecker House, built circa 1800 and since demolished.

Sink: Because Hayward and Johnson live in a rental, they can’t mess too much with the fixtures and tile. “Our landlords are very accommodating with changes we can reverse if we ever move out, but not that accommodating!” Hayward says.

So to give the wall-mounted sink a Haunted Mansion makeover, she replaced the faucet and commissioned a skirt. The faucet is supposed to resemble a swan, but “it looks more like a ticked-off sea serpent to me,” Hayward says.

For the skirt, Johnson helped Hayward sketch a version of the one that previously covered the sink’s ugly exposed pipes, only this time in velvet with lots of swags. Then she asked a local seamstress to make it. It’s “totally ridiculous,” Hayward admits. “She thought it was supposed to be an actual skirt at first!”

Window treatment: Hayward matched the sink skirt to the swag valance with cascades. “I looked at so many photos of the Haunted Mansion foyer’s draperies, trying to figure out which shade of mustard brown they were and what all was going on with the trim,” she says. Interior decorator Leslie Landis—who had worked more extensively on other (unthemed) rooms in the couple’s apartment, including the laundry—came to the rescue by unearthing a dead ringer in the L.A. Fashion District.

“I searched for weeks but could not find black tassel trim with the same crisscross design to layer over the gold bullion fringe,” Hayward says. “I finally went for a black ball-fringe trim with an identical crisscross, since the ball doesn’t read that differently from a tassel unless you get really close.”

As for the ghostly white panels underneath the valance, Hayward was idly searching for sheer lace on eBay when she came across the foyer’s exact lace with medallions on dotted swiss.

Chandelier: Hayward’s other lucky find was a 1920s chandelier on Craigslist. “It has identical acanthus leaves sprouting out the top, and the base has the same design—the whole thing is just on a smaller scale than Disneyland’s,” she says. She replaced the teardrop-shaped crystals on the lower tier with rectangular ones for a closer match to the original.

Ceiling: By far the most difficult thing to reproduce was the foyer’s elaborate ceiling. Hayward initially investigated wood molding for authenticity, but when that proved too expensive, Johnson volunteered to paint a trompe l’oeil version. Hayward had 3D rosettes custom-made for the corners.

Rosettes: Heartwood Carving

Furniture and accessories: Treasure hunting on eBay turned up a to-scale replica of a Haunted Mansion gargoyle—not technically from the foyer, Hayward concedes, but rather from the Stretching Room. Its battery-operated candles light the way to the shower. Etsy was the source for the towel hook.

Since the shower gets only occasional use by guests, Hayward isn’t concerned about the moisture’s effect on the wallpaper. “Our master bath is papered, and we’ve had zero problems with peeling,” she says.

And do the foolish mortals who wander into the bathroom get spooked? It’s “a total shock,” Hayward says. “We usually have to explain why we have a creepy-granny bathroom and reassure kids that it’s not actually haunted. Mostly they just roll their eyes indulgently at their wacky Disney-loving pals.

A chest of drawers received a face-lift and new knobs for a Victorian effect. Hayward then adorned it with replicas of Haunted Mansion busts.

Toilet paper holder: Dering in Antique Brass, Signature Hardware

Next to the chest, the toilet sports an acanthus-leaf handle and a tissue box holder masquerading as a stack of old tomes.

The upshot: For Hayward and Johnson, redecorating to capture the spirit of the foyer in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion was a thrilling ride. With all the work they put into the bathroom, they don’t envision redecorating—or moving—anytime soon.

“We’ll have lived here four years come November,” says Hayward. “Having a rent-controlled apartment in a market where you have to be a millionaire to buy a house means we will probably be in this place a long time. I lived in my last two apartments for almost 10 years each, so I don’t see us moving any sooner than that!

“But my philosophy is that you should make your home comfortable no matter how long you intend to live there, regardless of whether you rent or own. Yes, we’ve invested in some things that we cannot take with us when we leave, but it’s worth it to us to be able to enjoy them while we live here, no matter how long that is.”